Tell us about your first day at something — school, work, as a parent, etc.

I don’t know why when I was younger or maybe that’s for everybody. It feels awkward to sit by yourself.

I don’t feel that way anymore, but I did

The School Cafeteria

The eighth grade school cafeteria, and I found the first seat that was open. I sit down with five people. I just start eating my lunch. I don’t remember if I introduced myself.

They started in pretty quickly just being an eighth grade boy jackass. they weren’t all that good at being jackasses.

For some reason, I completely ignored it. It wasn’t in my personality either, but by the eighth grade, I’d moved enough and knew when to push the envelope.

I later found out these were the good kids at school. all five of these people sitting at the table that day I eventually became very good friends with.

First impressions are highly overrated.

Workplace

I had a very similar situation when I went to work at Campbell Soup. I sat down randomly and ate lunch with two girls named Dory and Sheila. They were the opposite of the eighth grade jackasses.

We also became very good friends, it was nice not to sit with my boss because he probably would’ve been that eighth grade jackass.

Lessons Learned

I think about when my kids went to school or started a new job and what they endured. They don’t even talk about it. It’s a non-event for them. I may have had something to do with that.